Chapter 108
When Caroline and Jason followed Jianmen into the underground library, through the diner door, they saw that the books on the shelves all seemed to be glowing in different colors of light.
Jianmen raised his right hand, with orange and golden light emitting from his palm, then shortly, three thin books flew from their shelves and into his hand.
“Here.” Jianmen handed the three books to Caroline and Jason: “Take a look at these, they introduce some basic sealing and other power symbols and their usage. And the sealing rune should be - here.” Jianmen pointed his finger at one of the books, the book opened and a gentle orange and golden glow highlighted the page it opened at.
“Oh, Boss?” Caroline thought for a short while and asked: “Where can I find books on human symbols - something like a - a magical pinky swear?”
“Pinky swear? You meant like the two halves from the body?” Jason looked at Caroline then nodded: “Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.”
“The first layer, on the shelf that marked ‘Rituals/Sacrifices’.” Jianmen waved his hand again, and the book shelves switched their positions, with one of the shelves pushed up front: “And the thing you called ‘pinky swear’ is actually a kind of binding symbol. And you can find the basic information on binding symbols from these three books.”
“Aren’t you gonna stay and read with us Boss?” when Jianmen headed to the stairs, Jason asked.
“Oh, I will in a bit. Right now I need to drink my pain away first and tend to the garden for a bit.” Jianmen waved his hand: “When you’re done, take a look at the rose in the garden.”
“Hey, Caroline, look what I found here.” Jason gently tapped Caroline’s shoulder shortly after they started reading.
“The power of extended fingers...” Caroline read with a frown: “In different magical and power systems and frameworks originated from different regions and cultures, the use of hand gestures, especially the ones with extended fingers have become the simplest form of ill-wishing and curses. And with different manners and context of usage, the extended fingers can also serve as the one of the most basic forms of provocation spell - not uncommonly used on the battlegrounds and even for the detection of hidden passive magical mines and traps… did I just read the use of the finger!?”
“Pretty interesting, huh!” Jason couldn’t contain his laughter and pointed at a drawing of a hand with the middle finger raised: “You see, this is pretty official. The middle finger is one hell of a spell! Ahahahahaha....”
“Who the hell wrote this?” Caroline took the book from Jason’s hand and flipped to the back of the book, then her facial expression turned weird and she handed the book back to Jason: “Look at the author name, look who wrote this.”
“...by Josephine S.L. Wong, honorary member of the League of Skyblue Aegis, Summa Cum Laude of the Grant Academy ‘35.” Jason read the tiny etchings at the back of the book out loud and looked at Caroline: “This wouldn’t… this couldn’t be THAT Josephine Wong, right? This just can’t be!”
“Yeah, if this is her, then she would be, what, at least a hundred years old?” Caroline shrugged.
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“Yeah that’s her.” when Jianmen came down from upstairs and Caroline and Jason asked him about the author of the book, and he just nonchalantly confirmed: “In fact, she gave me that book. One of her favorite dissertations.”
“What … why… how? How old is she?” Jason was at a loss for words: “Holy shit Boss! I know you know her, but how come didn’t you tell us this?”
“Yeah, that was before you guys underwent the tribulation of fate - you’re not ready for some secrets of this world yet.” Jianmen shrugged: “And uh, she’s more than 200 years old officially. She graduated from the academy in 1835. And by the academy I meant the Grant Academy of Mythical Arts. You can think of it as a historic magical boarding school floating somewhere in the world, with some very outdated bookkeeping systems and garbage for canteen food.”
“Wow. ” Caroline hit Jason on the arm and winked: “I guess I’ll watch her movies now!”
“Yeah... No. ” Jianmen shook his head: “I watched them and wouldn’t really recommend them. They’re kinda trash.”
“Woah woah woah woah! Boss! ” Jason seemed like he was genuinely offended: “I thought you are her friend?”
“I AM her friend. And friends deserve honesty. She knows.” Jianmen took a sip of his wine: “But, to be fair - I’ve seen her in action - all her movies looked like trash compared to her actual moves...”
“Okay, Boss, one of these days you really need to introduce us to these mysterious friends of yours.” Caroline shook her head, then she suddenly realized something: “Wait - I think Josephine Wong was the only ‘friend’ of yours we know about. Who else is magic and we don’t know?”
“Oh my god! Dave! Is Dave also magic!?” Jason excitedly turned to Jianmen.
“I’ll tell you later. First tell me about what you just found.” Jianmen rubbed his temples and sat down by Caroline and Jason’s side.
“Okay. it’s actually quite interesting.” Caroline showed Jianmen a page of the book in her hand: “This symbol is also on the chains that bind the corpse. And looks like when combined with the sealing rune we found earlier, they can reinforce each other creating a self-fueling sealing spell, where it basically uses the power it saps out from the entity inside to fuel the spell itself. It’s like making the prisoners maintain the jail cells.”
“Yeah. That is what I sensed when I saw the body - the two coins inside its body were the central sinks of the energy. They act like car batteries - they charge up when the energy is flowing normally and they go into action when the seal is growing weak due to lack of energy flow.” Jianmen nodded: “And the coin I put on it was like a faulty one - it consumes more energy from what’s inside of the corpse but doesn’t give much back. Which reminds me - be careful of the corpse - I sensed that the wooden coin is processing more energy than expected. ”
“Noted. And the pinky swear?” Jason continued with excitement, showing a page on the books on his hand: “What do you know, Josephine Wong is awesome - she posited here that gestures of promise making and swearing in the names of deities can be foundations of powerful binding spells as well. It doesn’t - so we’re thinking - the pinky swear was not some sicko play - it’s part of the binding spell!”
“Hmm, makes sense. That explains the concentrated dark energy on the hands. And I think Josephine’s definitely onto something here. Do you remember the nature of ‘True Words’? Acts of promise making and swearing to deities can have some similar effects, but to a different degree.” Jianmen nodded: “Good work.”
“Now tell Boss about the power of fingers.” Caroline chuckled and nudged Jason.